The Changing Face of Super Commuting

The advent of remote and hybrid work has given many commuters time back, but that’s?especially true for “super commuters” who spend?90 minutes or more getting to work. This group has reached the lowest rate in over ten years, according to an?analysis?of?Census American Community Survey data by Apartment List, an online rental platform.

Though super commuters have long represented a tiny, unlucky, proportion of the labor market, the data represents a reversal of commuting trends that persisted throughout the last decade. In 2010, there were about 3.2 million super commuters in the US. By 2019, they had become one of the fastest-growing segments of the labor market, a group of 4.6 million commuters that made up?3%?of the workforce.

The pandemic slammed the brakes on their way of life. In 2021?— the most recent census data available —?only 2% of the workforce, or 3.1 million people, were?super commuting.

The census data doesn’t?capture hybrid commuters?perfectly, because it?doesn’t ask about travel time?for workers who say they typically?work from home.?And it doesn’t account for the growing genre of stories about?white-collar workers?who moved farther away from their workplaces during the pandemic and are now being asked to commute less often, but for?longer distances. (Think: the businessperson who decamped to Florida but is now flying into New York for a work meeting once a month.)?

Still,?Chris Salviati, Apartment List’s senior housing economist, says that the data suggests that white collar workers who are swapping their super commutes with telecommutes are driving the decline.

Before the pandemic, super commutes were rising most quickly for the highest-income workers, who tend to be the people who are most likely to work remotely, said Salviati; now, that gap is narrowing.

Read on in the full edition of the Bloomberg Work Shift newsletter. Be the first to read next week's edition: Click here to subscribe.

Welcome to Bloomberg Work Shift’s weekly newsletter here on LinkedIn. This edition is written by Sarah Holder. We want to hear from you so send ideas, tips and feedback to?[email protected].

Get exclusive reporting, data, insights, and solutions to futureproof your business and career delivered to your inbox on Tuesdays. Click here to subscribe to the Bloomberg Work Shift newsletter and read our latest coverage.

Quick Hits

• The emerging field of?employee pet benefits?includes?pawternity leave (time off when you get a dog), pet bereavement days, dog boarding in the office, discounted pet insurance and the ultimate perk: granting the right to bring your pet to work.
• BlackRock?is calling employees?back to offices?at least four days a week, telling staff that the firm has found benefits from working together in person after the pandemic.
• Meanwhile,?AT&T?is cutting its?office footprint?and requiring managers to show up in person at least three days a week, a move that could prompt some people to quit, Chief Executive Officer John Stankey said in an interview.

Read more top stories from the Bloomberg Work Shift team.

Bloomberg News also offers a wide array of daily and weekly newsletters — explore them all here.